The present invention relates generally to interferometry and in particular to a highly stable optical component for use in concentric beam heterodyne interferometry.
Precision laser interferometry is used to precisely determine the distance to one or more fiducial points, such as a flat mirror, rooftop mirror, or corner-cube retro-reflector (“retro”), or between such fiducial points. An interferometer generally is composed of three components or subsystems: (1) a radiation source (e.g., a laser), (2) an optics component for producing beams of light for reference, measurement, and so on (herein referred to as a “beam launcher”), and (3) a signal processor (e.g., an observer or a photo-detector and associated electronic circuits) or other processing component to perform the interferometric determinations. In some configurations, the photo-detector is included in the beam launcher component, while much of the supporting electronics (e.g., the phase meter(s) and computer) remain with the signal processor. As can be appreciated other subsystem configurations are possible.
Interferometers can be configured to operate in a number of ways. The present invention is applicable to optical interferometers in general, operating in the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum commonly referred to as the infra-red (IR) light region, visible light region, and ultra-violet (UV) light region. Since there are many configurations of optical interferometers, only a small sampling of interferometer configurations will be discussed for background purposes. It will therefore be understood that a “beam” in the context of the present invention can be IR, visible light, or UV.
Some existing beam launchers for interferometers do not produce collinear antiparallel beams. Alternatively, if the launchers do produce collinear antiparallel beams, the launchers suffer from problems including thermal drift, cross talk, beam-walk, and/or non-common-path optics, among others.
Some existing launchers that do not produce collinear antiparallel beams sometimes function by directing a single beam towards a first one of the retros. The single beam hits the first retro at a point offset from a vertex of the retro. The retro-reflected beam emerges from the first retro at a symmetrically located offset point, and the beam then is directed to a second retro. The beam and retros are positioned and aligned such the reflected beam hits the second retro also offset from the vertex, with the emerging beam doubly reflected back to an entrance point on the launcher. Such a circuitous configuration is sometimes referred to as a “racetrack” configuration. Any imperfection in the construction of a retro can affect the orientation of the individual facets of the retro, which can cause the retro-reflected beam to emerge at a deflected angle, giving a “dihedral” error that affects the measured distance. If, in addition, the retro or launcher moves in such a manner as to cause a lateral beam displacement, this displacement times the deflection angle results in an error in the measured distance (an example of a “beam-walk” error).
Precision laser interferometry can be carried out in at least two modes, namely, the “homodyne” mode or the “heterodyne” mode. Either mode can be used for the racetrack configuration.
In the homodyne mode, a beam launcher splits a laser beam of a single frequency into two beams. One beam is directed out to the retro(s) to measure the distance. Upon returning to the beam launcher, the beam is aligned and collocated (and the polarization aligned, if needed) with the other portion of the original beam, and the resulting combined beam is directed onto a photo-detector. If the extra distance traveled by the measurement beam is an integer multiple of half the laser wavelength, then, when recombined, the two beams are in phase and add constructively, resulting in an increased signal from the photo-detector. If the measurement beam is an odd multiple of a quarter of the wavelength longer, the beams add destructively, resulting in a reduced signal from the photo-detector. If the distance between the retros changes, the signal fluctuates, and the fluctuations in the signal give a measure of the relative motion of the retros. A signal processor (e.g., an observer or a photo-detector and electronic circuit) “counts fringes” to determine the change in distance between the retros relative to an initial distance. The resolution of a homodyne interferometer is limited, as it is difficult to measure changes in distance significantly smaller than the laser wavelength (typically a half to several micrometers) due to intensity fluctuations of the laser.
A heterodyne interferometer configuration uses two beams that are offset in frequency to slightly different frequencies. Typically, the beams originate from a single laser. The difference between the frequencies is chosen to be convenient for detectors and electronics. Typically, the frequency difference is in the range of about 10 kHz to about 100 MHz. Typically, one frequency-offset laser beam (the “measurement beam”) emanates from the beam launcher to interrogate the distance to the retro(s) while the second frequency-offset laser beam (the “local oscillator” or LO) beam remains internal to the beam launcher. When the measurement beam and the LO beam are aligned, collocated, and with aligned polarizations, and are directed onto the photo-detector, the photo-detector produces a “beat” signal. By comparing this beat signal to the known difference of frequency offsets between the laser beams, it is possible to track changes in the relative phase of the signal to find the change in retro distance relative to the initial value. With precision phase meters, it is possible to resolve distances to small fractions of the laser wavelength, resulting in measurements with sub-nanometer precision.
When measuring distances with fine precision, various error sources can affect the results. The laser intensity can fluctuate. The laser radiation is often routed to the beam launcher by means of optical fibers, where small effects such as a temperature variation or a strain on the fiber can affect the apparent optical length of the fiber and can result in a phase change that erroneously appears to be a measured displacement of the fiducial points. These errors can be reduced by replacing the “known difference” of the laser frequency offsets with a “reference signal” that measures the frequency difference directly. This reference signal is created by mixing a portion of the LO beam with the “reference beam”, which is a portion of the first laser beam that does not interrogate the distance between retros, and directing the combined beam onto a second photo-detector. The use of a reference beam significantly reduces the errors introduced by any common element (e.g., laser or fiber), but it cannot correct for elements that are unique to the measurement path or the reference path. Other errors can be reduced by sharing elements between the measurement and LO beams. The measurements are not affected by elements in the beam-path “downstream” from the point where the two laser beams are first combined (the point where they become aligned, like-polarized, and collocated), as the elements are common to both beams.
High precision interferometry requires improvements in the areas of thermal drift and angular deviations of the beam. It is difficult to create an operating environment that eliminates or otherwise reduces thermal drift in the interferometric equipment to acceptable levels. Therefore, it is desirable to decrease the sensitivity of one or more components of an interferometer to variations in ambient temperature. Similarly, beam alignment can not be absolutely maintained. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a design that can compensate for angular deviations when they occur.